colophon

This virtual guide is an attempt to present world landmarks. The goal of this project is to document and visualize the cultural and natural heritage
of our planet with interactive 360° Surround Photography and being used with people having limited movement and e-learning.

The idea of the project is from the year 1993 and with the intensive ground work from 1994.
The project was first published online in 1996 (within domain burger.si from March 1997) and was updated every week.

This presentation is a part of work in progress. Until July 1st 2011 the web site consisted of over 11.000 surround photographies.
Because of its nature, mistakes appear in certain sections, among which are also the English texts. The author apologises for all weaknesses and is striving to improve them.
This internet project is hosted on the servers of Academic and Research Network of Slovenia.

author: Boštjan Burger (Bachelor of Science in Geography, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia)

This is a private site. All the data, text, photos, pictures and SURROUND PHOTOGRAPHY are owned by the author Boštjan Burger. No other use like storing to other servers, hotlinking, copy-pasting, modifying images is not alowed. Every user of this web site is only aquest and use the site on his/her own risk.

Some more...

Boštjan Burger (born 1966) is a Slovenian informatician, geographer, a panoramic and VR panoramic photographer and a speleologist. He was founder of the Burger.si website and had retired as computer programmer in the 1990s to become a geographic researcher on the hydrology of waterfalls.

He used 360° Surround Photography as a tool in the research of landscapes. He was greatly influenced by geographer Don Bain for documenting the landscape with 360° Surround Photography and Hans Nyberg for his use of Quick Time VR fullscreen panoramas.

His first 360° pictures – so called: Cycloramas, were taken with BW negative film in 1982.

The very first computer game (Okoli Sveta) with the virtual exploration of World made by Boštjan Burger was for the Commodore 64 in 1983 with the programming method of sprites combinations. The aim of the game was to travel around the World's Landmarks, starting with Ljubljana Castle. With the right answers the player passed the level and continued to the next level - Moscow - China Wall - Statue of Liberty in NY - London - Paris and back to Ljubljana. The game was not commercial but shared all over Yugoslavia.

In 1989 he has created a computer program with an algorithm for assembling different types of crosswords, World squares from 6x6 to 10x10 and no blank filed crosswords – World rectangles 6x6. His crosswords were published in renovated Slovenian enigmatic magazines (Kih, Ugankarski domenek, …) in a period from 1989 to 1992.

Virtual museum Ljubljana: Open-Air Museum — founded by Boštjan Burger in 1993 and online 1996. Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia was presented as a huge museum where streets were the expositions of the architecture and building interiors were museum rooms. The method of the presentation were interactive maps and interactive historical relations between locations of Ljubljana documented with photos and later with Virtual Reality panoramas. In 1999 Ljubljanamunicipality co-founded a one year developement of the Burger's Virtual museum Ljubljana.

In June 1996 Boštjan Burger became involved in the creation of 'Slovenia Land Of Waterfalls', which was launched on the Internet after 15 years of researching the hydrology of the waterfalls of Slovenia. Over 300 separate waterfalls were recorded with complete data and visual information on each waterfall - the majority of which were presented and documented in VR. And so the project went on to create other VR intensive initiatives.

In 1997 the Virtual Reality Panorama project: Landmarks was started to create a striking visual presentation using Virtual Reality Panoramas. The Virtual Tour was very effective in showcasing locations like caves, deep gorges and mountain peaks, as well as towns, museums, castles, and national parks and ethnology. More than 11,000 360° Surround Photography have been created for the project so far.

The CD-ROM 'Waterfalls of Triglav National Park' was published 1998, and covered the entire area of the National Park with permanent waterfalls. The multimedia guide consisted of descriptions of waterfalls, accesses, GPS location, maps, interactive photos, QTVR's and 61 min. of VHS quality movies of waterfalls on a single CD. Many of the CD's were donated to Slovenian schools and incorporated into the Geography curriculum.

In 1998-1999 the first virtual tour like street view with virtual reality panoramas with 400 virtual reality panoramas as part of Virtual museum Ljubljana was realised in Ljubljana (Slovenia).

The 'Virtual guide to Slovenian Museums' began in March 2000, and the funding has continued into 2004. Many Slovenian cultural locations are represented, which are in turn connected to a virtual guide of each museum. Currently 106 museum exhibitions are presented within this project.

Year 2000: The project of the Krško Nuclear power plant steam generators replacement took place and Burger has realized the documentation and visualization of the interior of the Nuclear power plant including a cooling water poolssystem which removes heat from the reactor core. The visualization was used as a learning tool to display processes in the nuclear plant.

In September of 2000, the newly initiated 'Karst Project' began to organize and photograph the cave systems of Postojnska jama cave and Škocjan Caves (Slovenia), so that people worldwide could admire this beauty without intruding in droves on the delicate ecosystem.

European schoolnet: 'Use of Internet and new technologies in schools'; from 4-11th May 2001 in Stockholm. Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of Slovenia has nomitnated Burger's photo virtual reality project "Images from Slovenia" to this European school projects. Teachers, educators, and researchers with extensive experience in educational technology have chosen their favourite examples and methods. Teachers and schools in all four corners of Europe made the most of their choice and the project was chosen as one of "favourites".

July 2001: CD–rom: the "Galop company" completed Project Leon Štukelj – Image of Slovenia. The goal of the project was to present Slovenian Olympic athlete Mr. Leon Štukelj and promote Slovenia. Data from Burger's project 'Images from Slovenia' was used for this project.

Presentation of Slovenian museums and galleries in Barcelone, Spain: for that event Burger published Interactive virtual guide to selected museums of Slovenia on CD-rom. The images and Virtual Reality panoramas from the virtual guide were used as a background projection on that conference.

Presentation of Republic Of Slovenia as a country of three regions in Bruxelless. (Ministry of Education, Science and Sport). For this event Burger has published a CD-rom presentation with 360° Surround Photography of Slovenia which covered the background of the conference.

Year 2002: Visualisation of turistic, economic and cultural centers in Slovenia. It was the cooperation with the Slovenian municipalities of: Lendava, Murska Sobota, Ptuj, Velenje, Škofja Loka, Koper, Bled and [Kranjska Gora]. Virtual guides to each centre was presented and published within the official URLs and CD media.

Year 2003: Burger's cooperation with the Slovenian Tourist Board and visualisation of tourist destination points of the complete territory of Slovenia.

Boštjan Burger presented at international educational conference MIRK in Piran, the use of the technology and computer at the educational process. Project of visualisation of cultural and geographical locations as an example of accessibility to disabled persons and as a showcase of the virtual exploration at the geography lessons.

Three ICOMInternational Committees (CIMUSET, ICTOP and MPR). Burger with the cooperation of Associatoion of Museums of Slovenia and Ministry of Culture of Slovenia published a CD-rom with Virtual Reality presentation which was also a background projection within the conferences.

In 2004 the first commercial GIS application with the use of georeferenced Burgers Virtual Reality panoramas was used in the application Interactive Atlas of Slovenia made by Globalvision and published by Mladinska Knjiga. Same year the interactive 360° Surround Photography were implemented into the java application for the mobile phones and used by the largest mobile company in Slovenia.

Invitation and participation of Boštjan Burger's web project 'Slovenia Landmarks' at (FILE) ELECTRONIC LANGUAGE INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL in Sao Paolo - Brazil. The invited works were result from a deep research that the organizers have done on the web and through this research; the organisators discovered the importance to have references showing during the festival. In that sense they had no doubt that project Slovenia Landmarks was a value contribution to the show as one of the reference of the media art evolution. The invited works were displayed in a special section in the website and in the exhibition.

Boštjan Burger has used the method of documentation with Virtual Reality panoramas and worked with International Tourism Institute, Ljubljana at the cultural project GOTHICmed: A Virtual Museum of Mediterranean Gothic Architecture - Culture 2000, Action 2, cultural heritage, call 2004. The goals of the project GOTHICmed, which emphasises the importance of the common knowledge and cultural heritage, are the inventory of gothic architecture in the Mediterranean.

Year 2005: Boštjan Burger documented and made an interactive visual presentation of over 200 monuments including the All Saints Garden (designed by architect Jože Plečnik) in Ljubljana's cemetery »Žale« which was a member of ASCE (Association of Significant Cemeteries in Europe).

In 2007, after three years of the study and ground photographic work Boštjan Burger completed a comprehensive Virtual museum of Jože Plečnik, a Slovene architect who practised in Vienna, Belgrade, Prague and Ljubljana. The mission of the virtual museum was an e-learning tool for a students of the architecture worldwide.

The Office of the Presidentof the Republic ofSlovenia invited Boštjan Burger to document with 360° Surround Photography the Presidential palace and the cabinet of the President of the Republic of Slovenia in May 2010.

He has developed and fine-tuned a method of light-painting to illuminate large caverns. In November 2010 he started important subterranean project which was 500 meters below ground in the methane gas polluted environment of a coal mine at Velenje in Slovenia. Between November 2010 and March 2011 he documented important coal mining processes using virtual reality panoramas, and presented all the collected visual data in an e-learning “classroom”.

On the international panoramic photography festival and exhibitions being held in Palmela in June 1-5th 2011, Boštjan Burger featured in this exhibit and has been chosen for his special contributions to the field as the master of the contemporary panoramic photography.

In July 2011, Boštjan Burger has been threated by the Slovenian Information commissioner to blur the faces of all people shown in public areas on his personal, non-commercial website, or otherwise he would have to take down all 11,000 360° Surround Photography on his website showing people or other identifying features (building numbers, license plates, etc) that were taken in Slovenia, or face fine or imprisonment. The cause for the thread from Information commissioner was unclear as he was ordered to blur or delete images, no mattter when taken...

2012. Maribor, the second largest city in Slovenia was European capital of culture in 2012. Boštjan Burger made a comprehensive documentation and presentation of Maribor and partner cities with their surroundings which was based on the understanding of culture as a product of societal activities. This includes the moral system with the development and state of the economy, technical heritage, art, urbanism and architecture, history, science, ʽmarginalismʼ and, last but not least, the location of the city itself – which has always contributed to its development through history. It does not seek only to paint a ʽpostcardʼ of Maribor, Velenje, Murska Sobota, Slovenj Gradec, Ptuj, and Novo Mesto, but also to show their authentic image.Boštjan Burger’s project covered over 500 locations with surround photography including images, captions and descriptive stories.

2012/2013. Technical visualization and presentation of the construction works fo NOP II shaft (Headframe, Shaft covering, Winding platform, Work platform) with the cooperation of Technical services of Premogovnik Velenje.

2013. The visual documentation of the subterranean coal-fire in Museum of Coalmining. 2013. Virtual tour and documentation of the complete exhibition of Coalmine Museum of Slovenia.
2013. Virtual tour and documentation of the exhibition The knight, Lady and the Dragon hosted in National Museum of Slovenia with gigapixel resolution and method of high dynamic range exposition.
2013. Comprehensive documentation and visualization of Postojnska jama cave system and presentation with interactive gyroscope movement and navigation. The method was with high resolution and high dynamic range tone mapping which was a method to map the “lampenflora” on the tourist underground path.

2013/2014. Comprehensive visualization, documentation and the presentation of the remains of the First World War in Europe with the focus to Isonzo battlefield – frontline. The goal of the project was the accessibility of the locations to the people with the special needs, education the visual preservation of the locations “as it is” in present time with the correlations with the old photography from the time period of the First World War.

2014. Cooperation with SPIRIT Slovenia - Public Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for the Promotion of Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Development, Investment and Tourism. Presentation of 600 geographical “hot spots” of Slovenia.

2014, August: the invitation of the Office of President of Slovenia to complete the “on-line« presentation of the Presidential palace. The project was completed in October 2014.

2014/2105. Visualisation of 100+ monuments and Ljubljana's cemetery »Žale« which was a member of ASCE (Association of Significant Cemeteries in Europe).

2015. Cooperation with the National Museum of Slovenia and Slovene Ethnographic Museum with the documentation project of transforming “reality” museum exhibitions into “virtual” exhibitions. (Comprehensive visualisation of Snežnik Castle – accessibility to people with limited movement, The Magic of Amulets, Exhibition SEM Slovene Ethnographic Museum, 18 June 2014 - 15 March 2015, Virtual museum - Fronts Awakening in National museum of Slovenia, THE MUMMY AND THE CROCODILE: The Slovenians exploring the lands along the Nile, National Museum).

The author is a "family man" with fair presence and devotion to family. The moto is "family first", than "bussines".

Boštjan Burger with his youngest daughter exploring waterfalls of Corsica in July 2009.